Teen shot and killed in Chicago days after she performs at Obama's Inauguration

Instead of helping their daughter plan her upcoming student exchange trip to France, Hadiya Pendleton's parents are now planning her funeral. Hadiya, 15, was killed in a park near her high school in Chicago's South Side Tuesday afternoon. Apparently, she seems to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Police said a man jumped a fence, approached the group Hadiya was hanging out with and started shooting. Hadiya was shot in the back and although she managed to run away, she died later in the hospital. There have been no arrests so far.

Like many of the victims of the most violent month Chicago has had since 2002, Hadiya had her whole life ahead of her.

The honor roll student had just gotten back from performing at several of Obama's inaugural events with her school's band. Her parents describe her as a good girl who always knew to do the right thing. Her friends say they'll miss her badly.

The images of Hadiya's family in agony because of their daughter's death are devastating and heartbreaking. I've always thought that losing a child has to be the worst possibly thing that can happen to a parent. It's so unnatural for a parent to have to bury a child that I simply can't to imagine what Hadiya's family is going through. I guess this murder is just one more in the ever-growing list of senseless deaths thanks to lax gun control laws.

How many more people have to die in tragedies like this one for us to wake up and realize that something must be done? What happen to Hadiya and her family is unacceptable. I only hope they find the solace they'll need to keep on living without their eldest daughter.

Roxana A. Soto is Features Editor of MamásLatinas. She's a bilingual and bicultural journalist born in Peru and raised in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Miami. She's also mom to a girl in 3rd grade and a boy in Kinder. She loves books, languages, traveling and good food – especially when cooked by someone else.